Family
by Kiddo20
Summary: For someone who had never had a family to call his own, the chance to get one could be the scariest thing in the world. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words series, not connected to the others.


Disclaimer: Neither the characters nor the artwork are mine. This is purely a fan work and I am making no money off of the use of any material.

Fluff. Fluff. Fluff.

Image to be found here:

chibi-nazumi. deviantart. (com/) art/ Family-266945815

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Story Eight

Family

Naruto Uzumaki, Hokage-to-be of the Hidden Leaf Village, paced uncertainly, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. As he had grown older his hair had settled down a bit, laying flatter against his skull, at least it normally did – today hands had been shoved through those blonde locks so many times that they stood up every which way, looking much like the hair of his youth. He continually fidgeted with the sleeves of his black turtleneck sweater, continually tugging them up to rest just below his elbow and then tugging them down and holding them over the majority of his hands by keeping the material clenched in his sweaty palms.

With all that the man had been through in his 24 years, including _literally_ battling to save the fate of humanity from the grasp of a mad man, one would think that there was precious little that could batter the nerves of their resident hero, Naruto Uzumaki.

They would be wrong.

Naruto found himself locked in a battle with his nerves on a daily basis. Specifically, involving the work that he had begun to take over from Tsunade as she had began to groom him to officially take over the position of Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He wanted to do everything that he possibly could to help the village; he wanted to help make Konoha the best that it could possibly be. And there was so much to keep in mind, outside of things like relations with other nations. He would have to keep tabs on school curriculum and trade patterns. Emergency supply plans, how to combat droughts and weather disasters. Things like city planning and how to go about just normal construction and repair to existing infrastructure – not to mention making sure the oversight is in place to know what infrastructure needs fixing in the first place and how frequently. His mind was buzzing every day with new things to keep track of and he wondered how exactly it was that the Third had always seemed so relaxed and calm.

"Two reasons." Shikamaru had answered one night as Naruto sat slouched over the kitchen table, almost shaking from the onslaught of reality that had slapped him in the face earlier that day. "One," the shadow-nin started, slipping into the chair opposite the blonde with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate in hand to set on the table, "he had been Hokage for a long time and had long since figured out a system that worked for him."

Naruto had then propped his chin against the table and sighed. "And number two?" He asked, weariness creeping through his voice as Shikamaru pushed the chipped blue mug that Naruto had had for as long as he could remember – that had surprisingly survived the destruction of the village – towards Naruto.

"He had advisors and helpers…" Shikamaru had paused then for a moment, "…and they had _their own_ systems after all that time as well…"

"There aren't enough advisors in the world…" Naruto had mumbled, finally pushing himself up and sipping at the hot chocolate. "But it's a start…" He added after a moment, that eternal optimism starting to creep through.

And he did start getting the hang of it. Naruto sat in on all sorts of meetings with Tsunade and saw just how much input she got from other people. She wasn't in this alone and delegated work to others – though in the end, decisions were made by her and damn those who tried to circumvent her.

But still...nerves were an incorporated part of his life now.

And this time it was almost like he asked for it.

Naruto knew that he could easily have been pushed to the front of all of the lines, had all of the strings pulled without even needing to ask. But he would not abuse his power or position that way. Shikamaru had pushed for him to do so – but Naruto didn't want to, for once in his life, just jump to the good parts. This was too big. Too important, to rush things.

They had financial records inspected, clean through on both of their histories – Naruto had grown up on a tight budget after all. He'd learned how to stretch that orphan's fund allowance every month by necessity. They'd had house inspections, repeatedly and unannounced. Psychological check-ups were conducted, especially considering Naruto's..._unorthodox_...childhood. But the mountains of paperwork near drove both men spare. The pair would spend their entire working days pouring over scrolls and documents, only to come home and find even more intimidating piles awaiting them. And they went through all of it. They answered every question (in triplicate), dotted every 'I' and crossed every 'T.' Shikamaru sighing through all of it before grabbing a stack of papers or helping massage out a cramp in the blonde's hand. In his defense though, the strategist never once muttered his catch-phrase, because they were working towards a goal here and it was far from troublesome.

It had taken nearly a year to go through all of it. But finally, they had turned in the last slip of paperwork. Had the last review of their life together stamped as suitable. There was nothing left but to wait.

It was a blind adoption. They didn't know who the biological parents were, though they could easily figure it out of necessary for some reason, and the biological parents don't know who was adopting their child. They just needed to wait on the child to arrive now.

"Naruto..." Shikamaru's scratchy voice whispered. "Calm down...everything is going to be fine."

Naruto turned slightly, seeing his partner of nearly 6 years now sitting on a chair against the wall, elbows planted firmly on his knees, dark eyes following every step the blonde had paced. A discarded ninja vest had been tossed over the table next to him in a fit of nerves of his own but he had calmed seeing the agitation in Naruto.

Naruto sighed but sat down in the empty chair next to him. "It doesn't seem real..." He said simply.

"This is the _realist_ thing that either of us is ever likely to do." Shikamaru said in his steady tenor. He reached out and gently tugged Naruto towards his own side, tucking the blonde's head to his shoulder and silently running his fingers through his lover's hair, pointlessly flattening Naruto's hair, giving him something else to focus on.

"We're ready for this right?" Naruto whispered after a moment of silence.

Shikamaru's cheek rested against Naruto's head and he hummed softly, bringing a smile to the blonde's face as he felt the vibration in his cheek. "Not completely, but no parents ever are. Every child is different and every parenting situation is different. We're as ready as we can be." Shikamaru let out a slight chuckle then, "Most importantly, we're _willing_ to adapt and change and take care of this little life. It will be in our hands to care and nurture and teach and love. We'll give our child as amazing a life as we can."

One of Naruto's hands reached over and grabbed the hand that was resting in Shikamaru's lap. Fingers laced loosely together as they waited in a tense but companionable silence. Both of them were running through their visions of the future.

Shikamaru was wary of that. He'd had all these plans of the future – be an average ninja, marry an average woman, have one of each average kid. Then came Naruto. He inspired Shikamaru to push and work and excel. Then came war that gave no one the option of being merely average if they wanted a hope of survival. And then came peace and, having seen so many extraordinary things happen, he could not settle for merely _average_ anymore. All of his expectations for the future had been blasted away in the wake of what life had handed him so far. But he couldn't help it now. He thought of taking his child for their first day at the academy and possibly glaring down suitors should his child be a girl and teaching the shadow techniques of his clan to the next generation.

And Naruto thought of smaller things: giving his child a bath and telling a bedtime story and taking care of them when they were sick – the things he had been denied in his own childhood. He worried if he would even know what to do. He had no experience with parents – how was he supposed to raise up a child when he had had to raise himself and he _knew_ he really hadn't done _that_ right?

There was a knock on the door and Naruto sat up as they both swiveled their heads towards Shizune's entering form. There was a big beaming smile slipping across her face. "The baby is here and healthy from the sound. It's being weighed and cleaned up. Do you want to know the gender now or wait until you meet them?" Shizune seemed to practically be vibrating, excited for the pair before her.

"Let's go see our kid," Shikamaru whispered, tugging the frozen blonde to his feet.

"Right..." Naruto whispered, a sense of awe beginning to slip into his voice as he started to get his mind around the knowledge that this was actually happening.

The pair slipped down the hallway, nervous hands with sweaty palms clasped tightly together as they walked towards what would be their future.

A small cry broke the air as Shizune pushed open a swinging door at the end of the hallway. Tsunade was within, quickly wrapping a child securely within the confines of a cotton blanket with practiced ease, gently tucking a wayward arm back in before turning with the fussing child in her arms to look at the two young men in the doorway wearing matching expressions of amazement.

Smirking she walked towards them and placed the child gently into Naruto's arms.

The child was heavier than Naruto would have thought, though that might have something to do with the weight of the responsibility that he was taking on along with the child. For someone who had never had any family to rely on growing up, the idea that this child was to look up to him and be cared for by him – it was immensely terrifying in a whole new way that the blonde had never experienced before. And warm. The child was warm. A warmth that spread into his arm and chest and was unlike anything he had ever felt before, burning in the gentlest of ways and he knew he would feel that warmth for the rest of his life. His eye darted all over her face, desperate to take in every detail, certain that he would remember this moment until the day he died.

"Meet your daughter," Tsunade whispered.

And then Shikamaru was there, right beside him, one warm arm wrapped around Naruto's back while the other added support to Naruto's own cradling hands. A soft expression had taken over the shadow-nin's face as he too stared down at their little girl, unable to tear his eyes from the sight before them. His weapons calloused hands laying solidly against his own, rubbing his thumb a few times against Naruto's hand as a gentle sigh slipped out.

"Hi..." Naruto whispered shakily, bouncing the mewling child lightly in his arms. "We're your daddies..." He said, voice uncharacteristically soft.

They continued to just stare at the child, _their daughter, _in awe for a few moments until Shikamaru suddenly laid a kiss to Naruto's temple, before resting his forehead against the side of Naruto's head. The man's breathing was uneven and occasionally gasping.

"Cry baby," Naruto whispered, though he was really one to talk, as tears of happiness slipped over whiskered cheeks.

"Shut up," the other man said with no venom, "and let me hold our daughter."

Naruto laughed for a moment and then passed the child over, tucking her gently into his partner's arms. It was weird to see something so delicate encased in the arms of someone still sporting their metal protective mesh, but then again – this was a ninja village, what else could he really expect?

"Hello little one," Shikamaru said softly to the little girl whose eyes slowly opened for the first time for them to see. A stormy grey looked up at the man as the child gurgled lightly which turned into laughter that seemed entirely too loud for a body that small.

"Do you have a name?" Tsunade asked quietly off to the side, having filled in the rest of the birth certificate.

"Kushina." Shikamaru said, not tearing his eyes away, though a hint of a blush ghosted across his cheekbones. "Her name is Kushina."

Naruto's eyes flared wide. At the beginning of the process Naruto had mentioned off-handedly that maybe they could name their child Kushina if it was a girl, but it had been left there. They had made lists of names, names with meanings of strength and courage and ideals that they wanted to instill in their child. They toyed with the idea of yet another name starting with Shika- to continue the Nara tradition. But they had decided to just wait until they saw their baby in the end, the felt that they would _know_.

And Shikamaru wanted to honor the woman who had gifted the village with the most incredible being he knew.

Naruto kissed his lover's hairline and added, "Nara. Kushina Nara."

Shikamaru looked up at Naruto then, finally tearing his eyes away, "There are enough Naras to carry on the name..."

Naruto just shook his head. "Her eyes are the color of clouds...she's Nara through and through. Besides the name is perfect, a bit of my family and a bit of yours."

Little Kushina's face screwed up and she started a small wail.

"I think someone's hungry," Tsunade said gently, before bringing over warmed formula and making sure the two knew how to feed her properly.

Leaving the two alone with their daughter, with Kushina, Tsunade slipped from the room and filed the birth records with the hospital. She could not knock the smile off of her face nor the image of that new family from her mind. She knew that _that_ little girl was going to have them wrapped around her little finger, two of the most powerful men in the village, and she couldn't wait to see it happen.


End file.
